10 Interesting Facts about Amsterdam

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when somebody mentions Amsterdam? There are a lot of them, aren’t there? In addition we did our best to gather 10 of the most interesting facts about this city which may or may not be familiar to you.

1. Amsterdam can disappear.

Amsterdam’s lowest point is 6.7 meters under the sea level. If climate changes which lead to the rise of the sea level happen, Amsterdam might have the same destiny as Atlántida did.

2. Amsterdam is built on metal rods.

Actually, Amsterdam is built on a pile of massive pillars which are anchored in the ground and they represent the base of the city. More than 6.000 metal pillars are holding the Amsterdam Central station.

3. Amsterdam is a home to a lot of polyglots.

Polyglots are people who know and are able to use more languages. 86% of citizens in the Netherlands are fluent in English, Dutch and a few more languages.

4. Amsterdam is the second highest consumer of coffee in the World.

Every citizen drinks on average 140L of coffee annually, which is about 3.2 cups per day.

5. 25.000 bicycles end up in the canals every year.

Of those 25.000 only 8.000 are recovered, which means that there are a lot more which are still underwater.
Another fun fact about Amsterdam is that the most commonly stolen item is no other than the bicycle. An average of 100.000 bicycles are stolen every year.

6. In Amsterdam you can find the best beer.

The Netherlands is the largest beer exporter, aka 1.3 billion liters are exported every year. Those numbers are still rising.

7. It has more canals than Venice.

Even though Venice is famous for its canals, what people usually don’t know is that Amsterdam has more of them. Amsterdam has 165 canals which are 100km long and that’s how it get its nickname – “Venice of the North”.

8. Amsterdam has more than 2500 houseboats.

Some of them are owned by the citizens and some are rented to tourists. You can even find houseboats for cats.If you like this type of houses, you can visit the museum dedicated to them.

9. There are more tourists than actual citizens.

More than 20.000.000 tourists visit Amsterdam annually. That’s 20 times more than the number of citizens.